Opening Acts That Stole The Show

[roaring_blood]

I have seen plenty of opening bands play better than the main act, but there is one that really stands out because I stopped listening to the headliner afterwards was seeing Atari Teenage Riot and The Roots open for Rage Against the Machine. After that show RATM just seemed so cheesy, I lost interest pretty quickly after that.

 

[Miek]

TOOTHGRINDER. I saw them on tour with chon, sikth, and periphery, and despite sikth being my favorite band, Toothgrinder had the best presence.

 

[Miek]

BTBAM is another great example.

I remember seeing them on their last tour before Alaska was released. Sometime around 2004. It was at this really small venue called The Roxy in WPB, Florida. There was maybe 100 people there to see a few decently popular MySpace era hardcore and metalcore bands. They came on right before the headliner, and absolutely stole the show. When they broke out Selkies at the end of the show I was speechless.

I gotta envy you for seeing selkies that way. it's STILL a mind-blowing song

BTBAM is another great example.

I remember seeing them on their last tour before Alaska was released. Sometime around 2004. It was at this really small venue called The Roxy in WPB, Florida. There was maybe 100 people there to see a few decently popular MySpace era hardcore and metalcore bands. They came on right before the headliner, and absolutely stole the show. When they broke out Selkies at the end of the show I was speechless.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I gotta envy you for seeing selkies that way. it's STILL a mind-blowing song

It was unreal. I had been into them back before they were BTBAM, when it was Paul and Tommy in Prayer For Cleansing.

I had high expectations, but Selkies was on another level.

The best part is the Roxy stage is only about two feet off the floor, so I was eye level with Paul's guitar all night.

 

[Miek]

haha. I felt the same way when I got to see sikth live. it was unreal. however, Dan Weller is much taller than Paul, so it was a bit different. but, man, I really can't imagine seeing selkies live that early on. absolutely next level

 

[Rubbishplayer]

Easy. Taking my 11 year old Dream Theater fan to a concert in 2012 and discovering Periphery as the opening act.

 

[synrgy]

Pantera opening for Black Sabbath. They started with Domination. Sabbath didn't stand a chance.

Ninec Inch Nails opening for Jane's Addiction. No. Contest. I love the latter - don't get me wrong - but Nails is hands down the better live act. Jane's seemed to know it, too; they started with Three Days, and there's nowhere to go from there but down.

 

[kaanman36]

Just last month, the Killswitch Engage / Parkway Drive / After the Burial tour. In Dallas, Killswitch was okay, After the Burial was better, but Parkway Drive completely stole the show. So good.

 

[CloudsUr]

Opeth opening for Dream Theater during progressive nation 2009, never heard of them before that, became one of my favourite bands.

 

[Decipher]

Man there is so many I can recall....
My first concert ever was Coal Chamber on their Chamber Music tour, Slipknot opened. They were literally fresh off of Ozzfest and they were untouchable.

Meshugggah opening for Tool. Nothing had just come out.

Gojira opening for the Lamb of God show that Sakeido mentioned.

Intronaut opening for Meshuggah. Don't get me wrong, Meshuggah was awesome but Intronaut REALLY caught my attention that night and I immediately went to their merch table and bought their CD's.

Hatebreed opening for System of a Down on their Mezmerize tour. SOAD was visibally done and that was one of the worst shows I had ever seen. Hatebreed just killed it earlier though.

Rivers of Nihil opening for Devildriver/Revocation show. Whitechapel was supposed to headline that one but couldn't get across the border. Rivers was touring Concious Seed of Light. Was there to see them admittedly, but they were awesome! More so than Devildriver.

God Forbid and Chimaira opening for Arch Enemy. They both REALLY set the pace.

Rivers opening for Hate Eternal. I was super stoked for Hate Eternal as I had never seen them, but man Rivers killed it once again. That was on the Monarchy cycle.

Recently Arch Enemy came through town and Fit for an Autopsy started that night. FFAA is a force to be reckoned with!

I'm sure their may be some I'm missing but man I've gone to a LOT of shows.....

 

[Konfyouzd]

Decapitated AND Vital Remains for Krisiun

Edit: Abysmal Dawn was at that show too. Damn.

 

[Descent]

Quite a few years ago Hypocrisy opening up for Opeth and Dimmu Borgir. Hypocrisy crushed both...but considering these bands were about equal in Europe I think it was just a matter of how the tour was organized stateside.

Kreator absolutely destroyed Nile, again quite a few years ago. After that show I gave up on Nile for good.

Voivod recently absolutely smoked YOB, there was no contest. YOB are horrible, so again, I was surprised to see them as headliners...probably the whole stoner thing is more popular with the weed crowd, dunno.

Back in the day Megadeth got destroyed by Fear Factory fresh off their "Demanufacture" LP. Dave Mustaine had requested a "suck" button on FF and Flotsam and Jetsam that night, but it didn't work as his sound sucked for the first 3 songs and the crowd still got into FF big time, bad sound and all. That was the last tour before he damaged his hand.

 

[TheDraeg]

Mastodon was an opener for Slayer several years ago in San Jose, plus Bodom. Mastodon crushed it.

 

[Riffer]

I went to a small metal festival in Allentown PA back in 2007 I believe and Necrophagist was the headliner. Well Necrophagist has visa issues and couldn't make the show so the new headliner was Bury Your Dead. The rest of the bill had the Faceless, Suicide Silence, As Blood Runs Black, Beneath The Massacre, Cattle Decapitation, A Life Once lost, Decapitated, Cephalic Carnage, Arsis. Needless to say, all those bands crushed Bury Your Dead.

Also I saw Gigantour in 2006. Overkill, Arch Enemy, Opeth, Lamb of God, with the Headliners being Megadeth. Arch Enemy completely owned that place. And having Opeth and LoG after them was nuts too. By the time Megadeth went on it was kind of lackluster.

 

[fps]

Dillinger Escape Plan supporting SOAD around Toxicity release. SOAD were great, but I had no idea who DEP were and their performance literally blew me apart, I had no idea what I was seeing.

 

[Element0s]

Last year Priest did their Firepower tour with Saxon as the support which is basically suicide. I love Priest but no band should be allowed to follow Saxon, especially on a stadium-sized stage.

 

[Bandersnatch]

I feel obligated to also mention the Arch Enemy show that I went to years ago during the tour cycle for The Root of All Evil. They had Mutiny Within and Exodus opening up. As much as I love Exodus, their set was really boring because they were just straight up buzzsaw sounding but Mutiny Within played a killer set.

Also, earlier last year at the G3 tour with Phil Collen, John Petrucci and Satch. Phil came out full throttle and just tore the stage apart, then went in to his side project stuff with Delta Deep. I was incredibly surprised that he outplayed both JP and JS combined. I was absolutely floored.

 

[fps]

I feel obligated to also mention the Arch Enemy show that I went to years ago during the tour cycle for The Root of All Evil. They had Mutiny Within and Exodus opening up. As much as I love Exodus, their set was really boring because they were just straight up buzzsaw sounding but Mutiny Within played a killer set.

Also, earlier last year at the G3 tour with Phil Collen, John Petrucci and Satch. Phil came out full throttle and just tore the stage apart, then went in to his side project stuff with Delta Deep. I was incredibly surprised that he outplayed both JP and JS combined. I was absolutely floored.

Latter one's really interesting, I didn't have him down as that kinda guy. Do you think there will be a DVD as there have been for other G3s?

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Ninec Inch Nails opening for Jane's Addiction. No. Contest. I love the latter - don't get me wrong - but Nails is hands down the better live act. Jane's seemed to know it, too; they started with Three Days, and there's nowhere to go from there but down.

I had a similar experience with NIN playing before Red Hot Chilli Peppers in a 2000 festival. NIN are just an intense musical force that just erased the Chillis.

Funny enough I saw Chili Peppers again earlier this year. Unfortunately for them, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic were opening.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Latter one's really interesting, I didn't have him down as that kinda guy. Do you think there will be a DVD as there have been for other G3s?

I doubt it. But he really stole the show. I would have liked to see something from the European leg of that tour when they had Uli Jon Roth instead of Phil.